Let's take a break from the Happy Lulu update and go back to the Tiny House. So we're not pushing with the new target date of Pacquiao-Mayweather fight for finishing the house since we won't be watching it at home, we'll be at Boracay that time. Yep, this oldie is braving the Boracay crowd this Labor day weekend. Oh my gawd I'm excited yet scared. HAHA... I'm a homebody even when I was younger, so crowded place scares me. But I just want to experience that chaos once in my life so goodluck. hehehe...

Anyway, since we gave up on setting a target date for the Tiny House, we're not focusing on the house hence it's taking much more longer since we're not on top of purchasing materials etc. Was so busy with helping out at Happy Lulu the past weeks, but I'm again shifting my priorities to the house, so tomorrow would be bathroom tiles purchasing day! :) We're really really close to completion, they're now finishing the 1st and 2nd level, and final retouch for 3rd level. It's insane how close we are to finally having a house!

Anyways, kitchen.

As you can see in my moodboard, we wanted a vintage looking copper wall light. Of course, that won't be easy to find as we needed three. Plus I'm sure it will be expensive if we found three identical light. So we semi-DIYed it. Why "semi" you ask?

Well, we purchased this wall light from Wilcon for P400. It's cute, it's functional, but it's too short for what we wanted. The bf to the rescue! Haha.. He disassembled the light fixture and used plastic pipe to lengthen the light.

He then spray painted them copper, and here's our new kitchen task light!

I'm aware it doesn't look vintage at all, but it's cheap and the look works with what we want.

It gives just the right amount of light that illuminate the shelf AND the counter as well. That's actually the reason why I wanted it longer, I wanted the counters to be lighted too.

Can't wait to use this space. We're already planning what food we'll store in the fridge, what things to stock up on, etc. But that's just crazy talk 'coz the bf will probably use that counter as a workshop. Haha.. We'll wait and see.

About a week ago, it's all about Happy Lulu. If you have no idea what that is, read here. Well, I was not informed that they'll be doing a soft opening and I still have so much to do!! The first week was in chaos, for my mind at least. I have to finish the menu design (they're using temporary ones for the first week), banner design, final decorating, and so much more. One of those is this chalkboard wall.

I know from the start that I wanted a chalkboard wall. I've been practicing my chalk skills on small signage for party carts, and I thought, well, that's easy. I'm sure it's not a big deal to tackle one wall.

Boy was I wrong. At first I was planning on putting the chalkboard on a much bigger prominent wall, thank goodness I changed my mind. Though that would be so much nicer so we'll probably still do that in the future. But for now, this will do.

We placed it on one wall at the counter area. And since my brother took some photos of me-at-work, well I'm sharing them.

I have zero exercise so this wall killed my arm. Haha...

The bf taking his own action shots.

Me climbing up the sink to reach the corners.

And here's the finish product taken by my trusty but very old and laggy S3!! Haha

At first, I have no idea of what to draw in here. Of course the first thing I did was the "Happy Lulu". And I added from there. 19 is in reference to our street number. Since Lulu is actually my dad's nickname, I added the speech bubble with "cheers" since that's the entirety of his speech at my brothers wedding. Hehe... Included the items we have on the menu, and for the corner, I thought it would be cute to have a "shelf".

The bf has his contribution as well at the very bottom... TADA!

Haha... But that actually inspired me to add the plants above the sink. The plants are actually one of my favorite part. I love greens, but since we haven't had the chance to have actual living plants in here, those drawing will do for now.

So that's our chalkboard wall. I'm so sooo proud of that wall... But I have no intention of tackling another one very soon. HAHA...

Did that logo too.. :) Oh and yeah, that's my dad. Haha.... See you there!

If you haven't been reading this blog since the beginning, then you probably haven't heard of our family house. That's the reason I started this blog, it badly needed a renovation back then and I decided to document the process, and all the DIYs I did to improve the look of the house. You can read all about it here.

Anyway, that very same house is now Happy Lulu. What in the world is Happy Lulu? Well it's the resto my Dad and Uncle recently opened here at our very same house. No, they didn't took up the entire space, it's actually a big house, they just took a portion of the front part, as seen in this diagram below...

Obviously that's not to scale. But that's the gist of it. The main living area is now so tiny but it's fine, we have a resto right here! :) Of course, I presented myself to do the interiors, I can not let them do it by themselves.. Hehehe. The catch is the budget for the decorating / kaartehan part is really small since the renovation / equipments cost them a lot. I can't just purchase or do whatever I want. But I took it as a challenge, that space needs to be cozy, and welcoming. I'm not going for grand or high-end, I wanted it to be comfortable and homey.

Before I share the decorating part, let me show you the space towards the end of the renovation. I don't have much photo of the process as it's basically just a mess. Hehe..

I didn't have any moodboards, or showed them any plans for this. I just spoke with the contractor and instructed him directly on what to do. So basically, I did what I want. Haha.. But of course I didn't went crazy, I would love it if they love the space too. The very big wall in the middle of it all is actually a post, the left part used to be our front yard, and the right part used to be part of our living area. We removed both sides of the wall and kept the post for structural reasons, and even not for that, I love the look of it.

I went with a very neutral white, black and wood for all the main elements. I was actually hesitant about the black part since you know, chinese. Haha.. But I love black walls, and thank goodness I didn't heard a word about it. But infairness, I didn't do it all out, just the lower portion of the walls. Actually, even before starting the Tiny House, I have pegs of this type of wall treatment and I was thinking of doing that for our own house. But the bf's not sold on the idea, plus we did had the loft, so half of the living area has high ceiling which will be weird to have two-tone on the walls. I don't know if I'm making sense, but trust, it will be weird. So instead, I use that wall treatment here which I love.

Anyway, we have existing ceiling beams and upon renovation, had exposed some, so we just kept it and I asked them to keep them / bring them back to wood. They we're even asking me to have ceilings, and I was NO. Haha.. Keep the ceiling as high as possible, embrace the beams as those quirky crooked beams will give the space architecture and personality.

Since half part of the restaurant was our living room, it of course have windows. Windows to our personal garage. What do we do with it? I don't want to lose the light coming from the window, but our garage is very unsightly. Hehe... So I asked them to build display shelves in that niche and install a smoked glass behind it.

Oh and the floors. As you can see above, we have two different floors. The weird yellow / black one is original to the house, think 1950s. I used to hate it, but now that I know a little better, I love it! I appreciate the history, and the weirdness of it all. I would love to see this house in it's former glory. Anyway, they wanted to cover it up with new tiles, and I insisted on keeping it. I can understand their apprehension since its old and is already showing wear and tear, as expected. But that's what I love about it. The other side are new since the original flooring there were not great, at all. Just did a stripe pattern because I still wanted a pattern, but something simple that wouldn't compete with the crazy yellow one. :)

Hallway going to the restroom. We carved a small restroom for diner's use at end of the space.

This is the restroom. Chose a simple white tile for the walls. It's classic and clean. But that's not it, I did a little something to make this bathroom special. Small doesn't need to be boring.

I know it's weird to end a restaurant post with a toilet shot, haha, but that's about it for now. For the next post, I'll show you all the decorating I did. I know, such a tease!

And while you're at it, like the page as well. Haha.. Check out the menu, the food is really amazing, and I'm not just saying that because it's my dad's. They server really great comfort food. Anyway, I'll share part 2 of this post soon.

HELLO

Hello, this is Elle Uy from Manila Philippines.

Decor Me Happy is a chronicle of my work as a decorator, our life in the "Tiny" house, endless design inspiration, and a place to share my mostly chaotic thoughts about my pursuit of happy homes and the randomness that is called life.

*Photos on this site are either the author's own or from the web. Photos taken from elsewhere are credited but unfortunately, some sources can't be tracked. If you found your photo posted here and wants proper credit or wants it taken down, please let me know via email.

Feel free to use my photos on your blogs, all I ask are proper credit and link back to this site. Thank you.